Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks

6. Producing More Energy

President Bush’s policies on tax cuts, public education, and prescription drugs emerged directly from his campaign positions against Vice President Al Gore. In some ways, the same can be said of energy policy. Bush campaigned on the need for more U.S. oil and gas production and “clean coal” technology while Gore favored renewable sources of energy. After the election, the Bush administration used both legislation and executive powers to improve the investment climate for production of fossil fuels. But there were also two big surprises in the energy industry in the Bush era: the rapid growth of renewables (especially ethanol) and a resurgence of interest in nuclear power as a source of electricity. Ironically, it was Al Gore who pioneered ethanol advocacy in his unsuccessful bid for president in 1992, a bid that began with a strong showing in the Iowa caucuses. While Bush shared some of Gore’s pro-ethanol rhetoric in the 2000 campaign, the Bush administration’s pro-ethanol policies were far more 6 Producing More Energy 116 · Bush on the Home Front aggressive than anyone expected. The shift in U.S. policy to favor nuclear energy was an even bigger surprise because neither Bush nor Gore spoke much about nuclear energy in the 2000 campaign. The third-party candidate, Ralph Nader, campaigned on a platform to ban nuclear power. Early efforts to pass energy legislation failed due to determined Democratic opposition and defections among moderate Republicans in the Senate and House. The threat of a filibuster in the Senate was formidable. Bush’s legislative success on energy came slowly, but it was ultimately accomplished through a crafty cross-partisan strategy. A dozen Democratic senators, most from the farm states of the Midwest, supplied Bush the crucial crossover votes he needed to overcome the loss of support from moderate Republicans, especially those from the Northeast. Organized farm interests with strong ties to the Democratic Party played a crucial role in delivering Senate votes for Bush’s 2005 energy legislation. As important as the 2005 energy bill was, it is only one facet of Bush’s national energy policy. A full appreciation of this policy requires consideration of executive as well as legislative successes. As we shall see, rule making and other executive actions proved to be at least as important as the 2005 legislation. Energy was also a key to the connection between policy making and reelection politics. Bush’s energy policies helped buttress support for his re-election in such states as West Virginia and Ohio and the corn-producing regions of the Midwest. With the exception of Illinois, Bush either carried or was competitive in the significant midwestern corn-producing states. In this chapter, I examine the fate of the Bush’s agenda on energy production , covering fossil fuels, nuclear power, and renewables. Chapter 7 considers Bush’s surprising record on energy conservation. Bush vs. Gore on Energy After almost two decades of low energy prices, the presidential election year of 2000 coincided with an unexpected surge in the world price of oil. From January 1999 to September 2000 the world oil price tripled due to strong world oil demand, cutbacks in oil production by OPEC, and poor weather in several regions of the world.1 American motorists incurred a fifty-cent-pergallon spike in the retail price of gasoline that persisted through the 2000 election. Since rising energy prices create risks and opportunities for politi- Producing More Energy · 117 cians, energy policy became a major presidential election issue for the first time since 1980. Governor Bush alleged that the Clinton-Gore administration had ignored the need for an energy policy for eight years. He outlined a ten-year plan to expand oil and coal production in the United States, build stronger relations with other energy-producing nations, implement conservation measures at home, and develop alternative sources of energy such as biofuels.2 Gore countered with a campaign position that emphasized conservation and renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind, and biofuels.3 In the fall before the 2000 election, Vice President Gore advocated that oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve be made available to bring down oil prices before winter arrived. Bush countered that the reserve should be used as an “insurance policy” in the event of “a sudden disruption of our energy supply,” not as a pre-election ploy.4 What is really needed, Bush argued, is increased...